The site invites members of the public to indicate which sports they are interested in ahead of an announced sales date of spring 2011, when 75 per cent of tickets will go on sale to the public via a ballot.

Pricing details will be announced in autumn, but Deighton maintained: "There will be millions of affordable tickets for the British public to come and see the Olympics and Paralympics."

Deighton announced that the number of tickets available for the Olympics had risen from an original forecast of 7.7 million to eight million, with a similar rise in Paralympic tickets from 1.5 million to two million.

Although the ballot is open to anyone living in the European Union, Deighton played down speculation that it might lead to British spectators losing out on seeing the Games.

"I think it’s going to be a ballot dominated by UK applications," he said.

"We are doing our marketing in the UK, and we would expect that the majority of the 75 per cent of tickets in the ballot will stay within the UK."

Deighton added that the main opportunity for international spectators to apply for tickets would come with the standard allocation of 13 per cent of the tickets to National Olympic Committees worldwide.

"In the highly unlikely circumstances that we were deluged by international applications to the UK ballot, we will look at the situation at the time to see what steps we have to take in order to mitigate that.

"We would talk to the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and the Office of Fair Trading about what steps we could take."

He denied that this effectively offered European spectators twice the chance of British spectators to see the Games, pointing out that British spectators could go through the same process by applying through their own national Olympic committee.

"But I can’t see why they would want to do that," he added.

Deighton said that the registration was the best way to deal with the threat of the black market, in that it was endeavouring to ensure that tickets reached the hands of those who were most likely to use them.

He responded to reports that black market operations had already begun with regard to Olympic tickets by saying that LOCOG’s lawyers were "already on the case."

Ticket sales are expected to contribute at least £376 million to the overall operational budget of £2 billion, although Deighton believes that amount could be higher.

"That estimate was made without assuming we would sell everything," he said.

"I think it could well be more."

With 75 per cent of tickets going to the main ballot, and 13 per cent to international Olympic bodies, Deighton said that of the remaining stock, eight per cent would go to TV companies and sponsors.

"Given that we have raised £1.3 billion of the £2 billion through TV and sponsors, allocating eight per cent to them is not an unreasonable thing to do."

"He added that many of the sponsors would be passing on their tickets to all parts of their company workforce, and that many would be running competitions offering tickets to members of the public.

The remaining four per cent of tickets are vouchsafed for hospitality packages.

Deighton explained that the increase in tickets had been made possible by revised seating capacities for venues now under construction, and by the use of a number of temporary venues.

More ticketing has also become available through alterations to the competition schedules - of which there will be around 630 in the Olympics, and 250 in the Paralympics.

"We have found extra ticketing capacity across all the main venues," Deighton said.

"And in some sports we have shortened the length of sessions and created more of them.



"To give you an example, the beach volleyball at the Beijing Olympics  had sessions that were five hours long.

"Even for the most ardent of beach volleyball followers, that is a long time to have to be in a seat.

"Everyone thought it would be a good idea to break that down into more manageable sessions.

"Ticket sales make up a significant part of our income, but at the same time we are completely committed to ensuring our events are accessible, that tickets are affordable and that our venues are packed to the rafters by sports fans."

There will be opportunities for spectators to get general tickets for the Olympic Park on the day through the same returns process as operates at Wimbledon, whereby spectators can pass on their tickets when they leave to be used by someone else for the rest of the day.

But Deighton insisted that signing up to the registration scheme, which will offer updates on major sporting events and offer first notice of ticket sales would be the best option for any would-be spectator.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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